MISSOURI VALLEY, IOWA – A fire chief in a small Iowa town has been charged as state investigators look into three fires at a vacant house.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) State Fire Marshal Division (SFM) was asked by the Missouri Valley Police Department to investigate suspicious fires that occurred at two separate locations.
On October 9, 2014, a fire was reported at a vacant house at the intersection of 10th and Granite Street in Missouri Valley. Several days later, the same vacant house caught fire two more times.
On March 7, 2015, around 1:00AM, another fire was reported at 105 West Superior in Missouri Valley.
During the course of the investigation, special agents with the SFM Division determined false information was provided to them by the former Missouri Valley Fire Chief Johnny Walker. Walker has been charged with 1 (one) count of Interference with Official Acts and 1 (one) count of Providing False Information. Both charges are simple misdemeanors.
The investigation into these suspicious fires is on-going.
